These five things will keep your fans coming back for more.

There are several ways to leverage Instagram Stories. Since its inception, I’ve tested several different ideas–from focusing on a specific event to sharing my general day-to-day. What I’ve found is when I share my creative process in 4-5 Story posts, it yields the highest views and engagement. Here is a quick step-by-step guide on how to share your process with an engaging and succinct approach.

Written by Amber Vittoria–an illustrator living and working in New York City. Her pieces focus on femininity and the female form, leveraging physical traits such as body hair, overtly extended limbs, and rounded features. Her clients include Saks Fifth Avenue, Lenny Letter, Man Repeller, Interscope Records, VaynerMedia, Victoria’s Secret, and Sony Music Entertainment.

Show your exploratory sketches

Sharing the messy, imperfect elements of your work is incredibly relatable. I personally used to hesitate showing sketches as they are unfinished, but people love to see how an artist’s mind works, and sketches are key to that insight. Either leveraging Boomerang to thumb through several sketches for a single piece, and/or voicing over your thought process as you are sketching is a great intro.

Bonus tip: Always remember to summarize what you say in writing for those watching without sound!

Timelapse your progression

Take a few quick stills of the progression of your piece (whether it is applying paint or layering color digitally) to create a quick stop-motion-esque effect. Alternatively, set your phone on a tripod and take a timelapse or have someone film you working. These options give your followers an opportunity to see you work in a real-time-ish fashion, allowing them to get to know you a bit better as an artist.

Show detail shots to draw fans in

Capturing close-up shots showcasing the details in your piece brings viewers an intimate glimpse of your work they otherwise couldn’t see. Because in-feed posts are on the smaller side, even with the zoom feature, showing the minutiae makes the viewer feel as if they are in the studio with you!

Bonus Tip: Leveraging Instagram’s new Superzoom feature is a fun way to achieve this.

Wrap it up with a great shot of finished artwork

To give your Story a finale, showcase the final piece through a video panning its width, a shot of it framed, or the final digital file! For work that takes longer than a few hours to create, definitely record and save your video/imagery to your camera roll to post all at once later on. Your viewers will appreciate digesting your full process in one complete story, but remember to keep the overall experience on the shorter side, to lessen the chances of viewing fatigue. Also remember, the quality of video is meant to look like it is shot on a phone, so don’t fret if it isn’t perfect.

Use a Call-to-Action (CTA) to send traffic to your shop

If you have 10k+ followers, remember to link the final still or video to your Society6 shop, where they can purchase reproductions of this piece! If you have under 10k followers, direct your followers to the Society6 link in your bio. The majority of my Society6 sales come shortly after I share my process of my newest piece!

Overall, leveraging Instagram Stories is an incredible way to give insight into how you do what you do. From painting to sculpture to digital art, your process is such an integral part of your work. Inviting your followers into your workspace as you create is an intimate way to share your story on social. I can’t wait to see your process!